PRESS

Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. is a step closer to once again being plastics-free.

Private investment group Madison Capital Partners of Chicago has purchased Cooper's Holm Industries Inc., an extruder of plastic sealing and tubing products for the automotive, construction and appliance industries.

Terms of the deal, announced June 23, were not disclosed.

Scottsburg, Ind.-based Holm, is the largest part of Cooper's plastics division, which it acquired from Standard Products Co. last year, said Roger Hendriksen, Cooper's director of investor relations.

Earlier this year Findlay, Ohio-based Cooper had sold a Winnsboro, S.C., injection molding and painting unit to Plastech Engineered Products Inc. of Dearborn, Mich.

"This sale represents an important piece in the execution of our plan to divest our plastics division," Thomas Dattilo, Cooper's chairman, chief executive officer and president, said of the Holm Industries deal in a written statement.

The sale, which was scheduled to close by June 30, covers 10 plants, including six fully owned facilities in the United States and one in Mexico. The remaining three comprise a joint venture company in India and two joint ventures in Mexico, said Larry Gies, Madison Capital president.

Though Madison Capital has been involved in just about every sector of the plastics industry, this latest acquisition marks Madison's entrance into extrusion, Gies said.

And the company does not intend to stop there. If the extrusion market continues to grow, Madison will follow its plan to acquire similar companies, he said. Madison also is considering adding capacity at some of its locations, he said.

Though plans are not definite, one thing is certain: Senior management at Holm Industries will own part of the company, according to Gies. Management ownership is a staple in the book of rules for Madison Capital, he added.

"A large stake in the business is the best way to provide value for the customer," because those who are in the plant daily know what's best for the firm, Gies said.

He said Madison also is seeking thermoforming-related businesses to add to Brown Machinery of Beaverton, Mich., the firm's only current thermoforming machinery company.

The sale of Holm Industries is the second step in Cooper's plan to divest its recently acquired plastics unit.

Washing the company's hands of those operations will let Cooper focus on its core tire and automotive parts businesses, Dattilo said.

The plastics division had sales of $213 million last year. Cooper's total sales were $2.2 billion.

There are only two plants left in Cooper's plastics division, one in Cleveland and another in Spartansburg, S.C. Both are extrusion facilities, Hendriksen said.

"We've had interested buyers for some time now, since these things went on the block," he said.

The company expects to announce the sale of those remaining plants sometime in the third quarter of this year, according to Hendriksen.

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